If you’re an eighteen-year old kid who’s used to running his mouth on the field a little bit – or maybe more than a little bit – do you really want to play for a soulless robot like Nick Saban…

“We have a rule on our team that our players are not allowed to talk to players on the other team,” the Alabama coach said. “We have guys who violate that occasionally, but by having the rule probably minimizes it. We haven’t had a whole lot of it.”

Talk takes away from focus, Saban said.

… or somebody who’s a little more flexible?

Georgia’s Mark Richt: “Some of it’s kind of funny. Football is a very physical game. There’s a lot of hand-to-hand combat. … Every time the ball’s snapped, somebody’s winning a battle. Sometimes feelings get hurt. Sometimes guys get mad and they’ll say this or that and another guy will come back and say something back. If he thinks he’s getting into somebody’s head by talking a little trash to him and getting him out of his game, that’s all part of it. Now, if it’s really foul … There’s some truly unsportsmanlike trash talk – I guess the term ‘trash talk’ makes it bad as it is – but I don’t think it’s awful. It’s almost inevitable that guys are going to say things to each other and try to get in their heads. I don’t worry too much about it. But if a guy’s also doing that and putting your finger in somebody’s face or doing something stupid with it, I don’t think it’s very good. If it keeps a guy from staying focused, that’s not good either. But I can’t sit here and say that I would ever have some kind of rule to say you can never talk to the opponent during the game.”

I also think Bama would be a better draw than LSU. But Puff is wrong, I have always been an advocate of supporting CMR but this is one case where Saban is right. I would much prefer UGA players to let their intensity out on the play, but act cool afterwards. Don’t even acknowledge their existence. Trying to think of something else I like better about Saban as a coach……might be a better DB coach if we ever had an opening. Otherwise, I will play the hand we have.

That entire team is treated like an NFL property. You can look at everything from his scholarship practices to roster management, and maybe even the way the Tide is marketed by the university (though I’ve got precious little empirical evidence to back this hunch up). Now let the propaganda machine begin to turn, as the school puts the heat on ESPN & anyone else who doubts that they should be inserted into the BCS discussion.

The American sporting press is clearly already turned and willing accomplices, having dropped the Tide just two places after losing AT HOME to LSU. If Alabama sneaks into the BCS title game it will be on the backs of the sportswriters.

Why would you ever consider elements not directly tied to results on the field and “winning” UF guy—events in GVille for the past two decades have proven beyond any doubt that moral standards can vary substantially between member SEC schools.

The next paragraph in the Saban article might provide a little more perspective, though likely won’t fit the Senator’s meme:

“You should do your job,” he said. “How you perform, the toughness you play with, the effort you give, your ability to focus, and the discipline to execute frustrates the other guy, not what you say. It may motivate them. That’s our rule.”

Quote Of The Day

“The only thing he’s promised me is he’s going to play the best player and that’s the only promise I want,” (Justin) Fields said in an interview on WSB-TV. “I just feel like I bring another aspect to the game with my legs. They’re both great quarterbacks. Of course, they were five-stars in high school. They’re just like me, but I just feel like I bring something different to the table with my ability to run the ball. I always like a challenge, I always like competition. I feel like competition isn’t going to do anything but make another person better. I’m not afraid of a challenge.”– AB-H, 10/11/17